A Sign Nobody Reads Is a Sign in the Wrong Place
Placement follows the sight line
A load capacity plaque has one job: tell the person about to load the bay what that bay will take. That person is standing at the aisle face, looking at the beam level, usually from a truck cab or from floor level with a pallet in front of them. A plaque fixed at 3 metres on the end frame is legible to an auditor and invisible to the operator.
The practical rule is one plaque per bay at the first beam level, facing the aisle, at a height the operator reads without leaning back. Aisle-end summary boards are useful for a different reader: the supervisor doing a walk-round.
The mislocations that turn up most often
Three patterns recur across audits. Plaques mounted outboard of the frame so they face the neighbouring aisle. Signs fixed to the beam rather than the upright, so they move or fall when the beam is adjusted. Warning signs clustered at the aisle entrance where the operator is steering rather than reading.
There is also a content failure that no placement fixes: a plaque printed once for the original configuration and never updated after beam levels were changed. A capacity figure that no longer matches the current beam spacing is worse than no plaque, because it licenses a load the frame will not carry.
FAQ
How many load plaques does a bay need?
One per bay, at the first beam level, facing the operating aisle. Duplicating on both sides is good practice where the bay is loaded from two aisles.
Should plaques be on the beam or the upright?
On the upright. Beam-mounted signs move or drop when beam levels are adjusted, and adjustment is exactly when the capacity figure matters most.
What must a load plaque state?
Safe working load per beam pair or per bay, the unit load limit, and the configuration it applies to. If beam levels change, the plaque is reissued.
How do I audit signage quickly?
Walk each aisle as an operator would: at floor level, looking at the first beam. Every bay without a readable plaque facing you is a finding.
All figures above refer to standard product data sheets; final confirmation is subject to written quotation.